Western Esotericism is an academic field of research, scholarship, and education that focuses on the history of European and Middle Eastern Esotericism.
As an academic field, the study of Western Esotericism was greatly influenced by Michel Foucault and the English scholar Frances Yates, with works like Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition of 1964. In the 1970s a specific research institute was established at the University of Amsterdam, now led by Wouter Hanegraaff, with further institutes established at the Sorbonne in Paris by Antoine Faivre, and the University of Exeter in England, led by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke. Other universities pursue the study of these topics as part of History or other faculties.
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The following Universities have academic chairs in the subject:
Specific degrees that can be granted include:
University courses in Western Esotericism may cover some or all of these subjects: alchemy, astrology, Freemasonry, Rosicrucianism, Hermeticism, Neoplatonism, Renaissance magic, German Naturphilosophie, Gnosticism, Kabbalah, Christian Kabbalah, Hermetic Qabalah, the New Age movement, theosophy, mysticism and numerology.
Degrees in Western Esotericism usually focus on the history of esotericist currents. The aim of research in Western Esotericism is to discover the interactions between esotericism and society at large and to study the history and spread of esotericist currents and movements.
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